Govt urea export decision lauded: Mian Zahid Hussain

President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday suggested complete ban on imports of cotton to encourage local farmers.

Continued collapse of cotton crop has discouraged cultivators who have started eying on other crops which can prove very damaging for our cotton economy, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that cotton economy is the backbone of the economy which should be encouraged at any cost.

He said that around fifteen million bales are needed in the country but the cotton belt could only produce 10.5 million bales paving way for import of 2.7 million bales from India.

Government waived import duty and sales tax on the import of raw cotton to keep prices stable which resulted in revenue loss of around Rs10 billion.

Now, government has decided to impose four percent customs duty and five percent sales tax on import of cotton from July which will discourage imports and encourage local planters, he said.

The business leader said that Pakistan was the third largest exporter of raw cotton but now it has become an importer since last two years which must be reversed.

He said that LNG imports has resulted in surplus production of urea therefore increasing export limit by 100 percent to six hundred thousand tonnes and an extension of six months in export period is a good decision.